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Cover of Art
Book details

Art

a visual history

by Robert Cumming

Published 2015416 pagesISBN 978-0-2411-8610-7

This beautifully illustrated book offers a comprehensive guide to western artists, themes, paintings, techniques and stories. Packed full of large, full-colour images of iconic works and lesser-known gems, Art: A Visual History covers over six-hundred and fifty artists, providing an expansive view of art history. Covering every era, from early art in 3000BCE to contemporary work, with chronological features on the major schools and movements and close-up critical appraisals of twenty-two masterpieces, this book is a broad but thorough introduction to art history. A firm foundation in the subject is ensured by an exhaustive glossary of art terms which reinforces technical knowledge such as an ability to identify impressionism from expressionism. Art: A Visual History addresses the question 'what makes great art?' With detailed referencing, crisp reproductions and a fresh new look, this book is a must-have for anyone with an interest in art history.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.

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What the reading experience may hold

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Themes to notice

Nonfiction

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Content notes

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Reading experience

Balanced tone · Measured pace

A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.

Who it may suit

A good fit if…

Readers who want a thoughtful experience and enjoy noticing the connections beneath a book’s surface story.

At a glance

This book's DNA

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ToneBalanced
LuminousDark

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Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc

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Spoiler-free
12345
PeakRelative emotional intensity
ArtRobert Cumming
Powerful4.3/5

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Before you choose

A quick reading snapshot

Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.

Reading lengthA standard-length read416 pages in this edition
Publication eraContemporaryFirst published or edition dated 2015
Primary categoryNonfictionExplore similar books below
ISBN-13
978-0-2411-8610-7
Language
English
Edition record
OL32867698M
BookenDeX editorial lens

A more thoughtful way into this book

This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.

Good to know

A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.

Begin with its place in Nonfiction, then notice where the book resists that label.

Try this reading approach

Read for connection, not completion.

Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.

Three questions to carry with you

  1. Whose perspective organizes the story, and whose perspective remains outside it?
  2. Which sources or lived experiences carry the author’s central argument?
  3. How does the book change the way you understand its larger subject?

Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.